From this day forward
Subtitle: rethinking the Christian wedding
By: Kimberly Bracken Long
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Louisville, Kentucky
Language: eng
Number of pages: 185
ISBN-13: 9780664239305
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Marriage; Christianity; Weddings
Description: Weddings have become a billion-dollar industry, with the average cost of a wedding estimated at $30,000. Taking into account dramatic shifts in attitudes toward marriage in recent years, many pastors are confused and frustrated about their role. This book offers a foundational understanding of marriage for today's North American church. Exploring current sociological analyses of marriage and the history of Christian marriage rites, Kimberly Bracken Long suggests that the church rethink its involvement in weddings and offers a distinctively Christian understanding of marriage. Today's church, Long contends, needs to reinterpret classic biblical metaphors and expand the range of scriptural sources that inform our understanding of marriage. Long also looks closely at each element of the wedding service and what makes a marriage liturgy faithful, inclusive, and sensitive to pastoral concerns. She provides practical suggestions for music and Scripture during wedding services as well as guidance on how to respond faithfully to those who are divorced or divorcing. Packed with constructive pastoral wisdom, From This Day Forward Rethinking the Christian Wedding delivers a practical theology of marriage that will be of help to clergy, seminarians, and others interested in this topic.
Table of contents: title: The state of the union; title: Should the church get out of the wedding business?; title: What's love got to do with it? A short history of marriage; title: Feasting at the table of love; title: The Christian wedding; title: Marriage and the church's mission; title: Scripture readings for weddings; title: Hymns for weddings.